< PreviousThe athletes were allowed to enter with or without a supporter.Those with carried the minimum of flying gear; those withoutwhatever food and bivvy gear they wanted for a night out in thehills. The club had negotiated carte blanche access for theweekend with only Black Hill being ruled out.The route was kept secret until the end of the briefing, when a70km race to goal from Merthyr Tydfil station to Castle Meadows atAbergavenny was announced. Encompassing almost the club’sentire flying area, from the post-industrial valleys to thewilderness of the Black Mountains, included turnpoints at theBlorenge, Hay Bluff and the Sugar Loaf, and a 50m-radius ‘SelfieStop’ at Crickhowell's Bear Hotel.The 8am start was unremarkable – 11 lycra-clad men withrucksacks standing outside a nearly-open Tesco Extra. Shortlythereafter the beauty of hike-and-fly racing unfolded, withdiffering tactics splitting the pack by several km within the firsthour. Five pilots sought a flying site at the back of Pontlottyn whilethe remaining eight ran or hiked towards the Blorenge, in whatappeared to be almost unflyable – and definitely not XC –conditions on a (just) post cold frontal morning.Greg Hamerton took to the air first, leading out for the other pilotswith a short flight towards Abertysswg while Rob Houghton, ScotThornhill and Nick Somerville led the foot race. Greg then flew ontowards the Blorenge as the day started to turn on.Meanwhile the leading pack waited on the Blorenge for a window tofly into the Usk valley and save a 500m hike down. When it finallyappeared to arrive Rob Houghton took off, only to go up, up and backquite quickly! At full speed, with ears on and tail tucked firmlybetween his legs, he lost about 2km in distance. He had to make upeven more ground on foot to the chasers who were now runningdown the Blorenge and going in the right direction! Those arrivinglater walked down, apart from Greg who, already having had acharmed morning, found a launchable window and pushed a fewkm into the strong wind to land between Crickhowell and Govilon.Throughout the afternoon pilots made it on foot to the Bear, oneor two having a pint before continuing towards Hay Bluff havingdecided that the day was too windy to consider another flight.By the end of Day 1 there were five pilots in the BlackMountains, Greg having had another flight along the local milkrun between Pen Cerrig Calch and the Dragon’s Tail. The otherfour arrived at Hay Bluff on foot.20 OCTOBER Dragon Hike and Fly RaceThe South East Wales club hosted their inaugural Dragon Hike and Fly Race over the weekend of August 12th - 13th.14 pilots made it to the Friday evening brieﬁng, with one becoming the race cameraman once he’d seen the route.Pilots travelled from as far as Whitby and South Africa (via Crawley) for an event celebrating what the area haslong been known for by a handful of pilots. That is, excellent hike-and-ﬂy opportunities in a wide range of winddirections and weather conditions!comp linesEncouraging sky at the start of the Dragon Hike and Fly Race Photo: Alistair Andrews OCTOBER 2017 21Day 2 saw a 7am start. RobHoughton arrived with aTelegram ping on the SugarLoaf at around 10am for his flydown to Castle Meadows and awell-earned, high-calorie victory!A handful of supporters sawhim in, still running despite hisnearest competition being milesaway. An hour or so later, DanStarsmore, knowing that Gregwas hot on his heels, had comefrom 5th overnight and had alovely morning of hopping alongthe (probably) previouslyunflown Partishow ridge,making it to the Sugar Loaf for acelebratory TTB and secondplace by about 11.30am.The man who’d had the mostfun had launched at Hay Bluffat 1045 and flown all the way toAbergavenny to land in goal bymidday. Greg’s cheeky 24km XChad saved him five hours ofhiking and yielded 3rd position. Minutes later, the fantastic skywent grey over the whole area.Nick Somerville, only a few kmwest of the Sugar Loaf, had toabandon through injury after afly-down from Pen Cerrig Calch,having hiked all the way fromHay. Nevertheless he secured4th place. Scot Thornhill alsoabandoned but took 5th. He’dmissed the Hay Bluff turnpointon Saturday and had to go backto tag it before his body gave upa few km north of Sugar Loaf.Most of the chasing pack hadmade it to Crickhowell late onSaturday and taken the prudent decision to stop for the nightbefore assaulting the magic mountain on Sunday. A two or threehour flyable window would have seen the rest of the routeachievable, especially as they’d teamed up to gaggle fly. All of them looking fairly sore and some with niggling injuries.They were going to have to fly the rest of the route. Weak cycles,slope landings and cruel hike-ups sapped the last of theirresolve; their final move was to fly down to Crickhowell andhobble to the prizegiving which took place at the Bridge Inn onthe banks of the Usk at Llanfoist.Credit must go to Andy Smith who’d had a challenging day onSaturday. He’d only made it to the Blorenge by stumps, but had asilky fly-down on Sunday morning, pressing well up the Usk valleyin the still air. He then hiked up Pen Cerrig Calch, turned northand flew deep into the Llanbedr Valley, hiking towards Hay right upto the cut. This resolve earned him 6th. More photos can be found on Facebook and Instagram bysearching for #dragonhikeandfly2017. If you have any questionsabout hike and fly in the area contact me atReport by Alistair AndrewsPG TRIPS 2017: MOROCCOWITH THE MID WALES PG CENTREStruggling to finish of your CP? Craving regular reliable weather conditions?Brush out those cobwebs and build your confidence:Join us in Magical Morocco this November!EP and CP combined Course, 7 day CP course + 7, 10 or 14day Post CP pilot development course.For more information please call 07779 790 637tel: 07779 790 637 or 01974 241574or visit build flying hours!learn new techniques!relax with warm evening flights22 OCTOBER comp linesThe first task was a 107km race to Schiers, designed to avoid the strong south-westerly wind at the official landing at Disentis. The task promised epicconditions and at the start all the Brits were well positioned at around 3000m.The first leg was fast and easy, only turning in the strongest thermals, butconditions were incredibly turbulent. Heading back along the ridge towardstake-off after the first turnpoint, the headwind left us needing to use full bar attimes just to make forward progress, often having to avoid avalanche barriersand other pilots metres over the slopes.It was a relief to be able to turn back around and have the wind to our backs.Swiss pilots Michael Kuffer and Tim Bollinger took the lead by around 3kmwith Seb and Steve leading the chasing pack. The race became technical againafter a long valley crossing into a very stable ridge, where the whole fieldregrouped and those who got on the right cycle managed to keep going. Stevewas first to climb out followed by Seb and Julian; Harry tried the next valleyinstead but landed out. The task winner was Tim Bollinger, Seb arrived 14th,Julian 39th and Steve accidentally missed the unusually short goal line of 100meters (he would have been 24th).A rain filled forecast meant around 40 pilots, including Julian and Harry, wentback home to earn some brownie points for future flying and comps. HoweverSteve and Seb had the fortune to live just two hours away and be on call in casethere was a possibility for a task. In the morning of the second and final task there was still a lot of uncertaintyamongst the pilots. Even the locals were losing hope due to the strongnortherly wind and low cloudbase. The task was a 43km race, zigzaggingacross the valley and landing back at HQ. The start was delayed several timesdue to the low cloudbase, but with time running out the take-off window wasopened at 15:30 for a 16:00 start.Seb was one of only two pilots to launch early. After turning in zeros for fiveminutes while the rest of the field watched from take-off, he connected witha strong climb up to 2800m, above the clouds, and soon the rest of the packfollowed suit. The first two turnpoints were easy as they were on the sunnyside of the valley. Things quickly became tricky heading to the thirdturnpoint on the shady side of the valley. En route to the final turnpoint thelead gaggle, including Steve, got stuck in a weak climb. Sniffing a chance atvictory, Seb dived at a rocky outcrop which worked like a charm, allowinghim to jump past the leaders and arrive in goal three minutes ahead of thenext pilot. Steve came 21st. The PWC veterans Seb and Julian finished 7th and 45th overall, while Steve andHarry finished in 47th and 76th in their first World Cup.Report by Seb OspinaPWC DisentisIn Early August British pilots Seb Ospina, Harry Bloxham, JulianRobinson and Steve Bramﬁtt headed to Disentis, Switzerland forthe third stop of the PWC tour. Disentis has a reputation of strongalpine conditions, rough terrain and breathtaking scenery. Meetdirector Martin Scheel certainly knew how to make the most outof this venue despite the fact that the weather only allowed us toﬂy two tasks.Thermalling in front of the 3,328m Oberalpstock, PWC Disentis Photo: Harry BloxhamThe BGD EPIC (EN-B) is the ideal paragliderfor your ﬁrst big ﬂights, and a fun all-rounderfor seasoned pilots.The Epic is an intuitive, safe and aestheticallyappealing paraglider. Bruce has packed lotsof high-tech design solutions into the Epicso you can enjoy the journey at your ownpace. A shark nose, mini-ribs, light andeﬃcient speed bar, elliptical tips and a safebut sharp brake range work together foroptimal safety, handling, and performance.The Epic will give you the conﬁdence tomake your journey over the highestmountains, across the deepest valleys andto the ends of the earth and back.Blencathra Business Centre, ThrelkeldKeswick, Cumbria. CA12 4TR01768 779800 - OCTOBER 2017 23 The GWO, primarily a fun competition butwith training elements, is organised byMeet Director Brett Janaway – alsoresponsible for the IT/technical side – andToby Colombé who oversees safety andgeneral organisation. It's an FAI Category 2competition, intended to introduce pilots tothe ethos of competition for national andinternational events. WPRS ranking pointscan be earned in a relaxed atmosphere butwith the same rules and procedures you'dfind at the next level. Although it's a fun competition, trackingand scoring are of the highest order. Thesimplicity of the system is a real technicalachievement. Trackers are collected ontake-off, switched on and ready to go. Onlanding, two buttons are pressed to indicatesafe landing and a request for retrieve.LEDs on the tracker indicate that theserequests have been received. After retrievalthe tracker is handed in and scanned, andwithin two seconds the pilot is told theirachievement in the task.The tracklog can also be downloaded fromthe tracker itself. Only if this second levelof tracking fails is the pilot asked for aninstrument to supply their own IGC file.The trackers send data to a server whichis analysed in real time. Descents over acertain threshold, and no movement onthe ground after ten minutes without aretrieve request are flagged up asrequiring action. This adds a big safetydimension to the whole competition; atany time the Meet Director can see theposition and status of all pilots.A 51km practice task went well with manypilots in goal. In addition to the 120competitors there were four Gin team pilotswho would not place for prizes: multipleWomen’s World Champion Petra Slivova,world record holder and UK team pilot TobyColombé, UK teamster Richard Butterworthand PWC pilot Andrey Badikov. All wereflying Gin EN B gliders to show what couldbe done at that level.The first task was a 49km race to goal,stopped after overdevelopment with nopilots in goal. Vitali Umanskyi (OzoneZeno) won the serial class and MatthiasSchmeisser (Advance Sigma 10) won thesport class. In the leisure class Petra(Gin Explorer) was first into goal but thefirst scoring pilot was Carl Ellinghaus(Gin Carrera). Female winner was ÁgústaÝr Sveinsdóttir. With a similar forecast for the second day ashorter task was set, but the sky againoverdeveloped and the task was stoppedwith no-one at goal. Despite the muchshorter distance, cu-nims had spoilt theday again. There was a reserve deploymentbut the pilot was uninjured apart fromminor bruising. Pilots reported the incidentimmediately and the tracker system alsoalerted the organisation. Gus Charnell (777King) won the Serial Class and GauteHvidsten (Skywalk Cayenne 5) led the SportClass. Petra again placed highest in theleisure class but the scoring winner was24 OCTOBER comp linesTwo of the best international fun compsof the yearSteve Uzochukwu reports from MacedoniaThe 5th Gin Wide Open was heldfrom August 5th - 12th at Kruševo, avenue previously used by biggercompetitions including last year'sEuropean paragliding and hanggliding championships. Kruševo,noted for its reliable weather andeasy ﬂying terrain, is at thesouthern end of Macedonia, a partof the former Republic of Yugoslavia. Gin Wide OpenThermalling over nearby KrušeaniPhoto: Andy Smart OCTOBER 2017 25Carl Ellinghaus. Winner of the women’ssection was Lill Elisabeth Jensen.The third day was also forecast tooverdevelop. A 40km task was set out inthe valley, but overdevelopment on bothsides eventually led to the task beingstopped. By then nine pilots had reachedgoal, Petra's Gin Explorer having smokedall the serial class gliders to get therefirst. Ten more pilots made goal after thetask was stopped. Martin Long (OzoneZeno) won the serial class and MariuszKozlowski (Gin Carrera) won both sportsand leisure classes. Female winner wasAnastasia Zubkova.On the fourth day a short 49.3km task wasset over the flats to preclude a replay of theweather problems. Conditions weresometimes slow, with big gaggles in thefirst hour after take-off, but climbs to3,000m were achieved when the flatsstarted working. Among the 60 pilots ingoal Vitali Umanskyi won the task, BernieHertz (Ozone Delta 2) won the sports classand Nick Warren (Nova Mentor 3) won theleisure class. Chantal Touzac took thefemale lead. This was another day whenthe Gin team pilots on EN B gliders beat allthe Serial class gliders to goal.What turned out to be the final task wasagain set out in the flats to avoidoverdevelopment on high ground. It wastough in the shadows of the taller clouds,but once again Petra showed what an ENGin’s Yeti Cross, a lightweight squarerescue parachute offering fast opening,rapid stabilisation and reliability.The Yeti Cross opens rapidly and smoothly, due toenhancements made to the canopy proﬁle and rescuepacking procedure. Any pendulum motion is quicklydissipated due to the square design and optimized airchanneling decreases the descent rate to well below thecertiﬁcation requirement of 5.5m/s, giving a stable,pendulum-free descent shortly after deployment.From £439.Technical speciﬁcations:Size#26#32#38Area26.0731.6238.08Weight (kg)1.31.51.7Sink rate at max. load5.0m/s4.8m/s4.8m/sMax. load (kg)8610412626 OCTOBER 2017 comp linesThe Naviter Open was held at Kruševo immediately after the Gin Wide Open, with the same organisation led byBrett Janaway and Toby Colombé. The organisation and technical infrastructure noted above applied to thiscompetition too.Naviter OpenB wing can do in the right hands, gettingto goal first. Anders Gustafsson (OzoneZeno) won the serial class, Rafal Cypcar(Advance Sigma 10) won the sports class,and Harry Young-Jamieson (Gin Carrera)won the leisure class. Female winner wasSvetlana Komarova.The forecast for the sixth day was poorand no task was set. All three gliderclasses were won by British pilots, thefemale class by a Frenchwoman. Althoughthe results below exclude the team pilots,it should be noted that Petra Slivovaplaced highest on an EN B Gin Explorer!At the GWO the class winners get thetrophies but many of the prizes (holidays,equipment, etc) are raffled. This year'sbiggest prize, a Gin glider, was won byFinland's Helina Nieminen. France'sElodie Bobillon won an Oudie 4. The meetended with a party at the event HQ. Allround, a great success and a definitivefun competition.Serial1 Martin Long GB Ozone Zeno2 Anders Gustafsson Sweden Ozone Zeno3 Vitali Umanskyi Ukraine Ozone ZenoSports1 Andrew McNicol GB BGD Cure2 Matthias Schmeisser Germany Advance Sigma 103 Bernie Hertz Switzerland Ozone Delta 2Female1 Elodie Bobillon France Gin Carrera2 Svetlana Komarova Russia Air Design Volt 23 Lill Elisabeth Jensen Norway Ozone Alpina 2Leisure1 Harry Young-Jamieson GB Gin Carrera2 Antonio Burian GB Gin Carrera+3 Carl Ellinghaus Austria Gin CarreraFull results are at Busy GWO launch at KruševoGWO serial class winnersPhoto: Oliver BrossPhoto: Andy Smart OCTOBER 2017 27The passage of a front had disrupted thenormal weather pattern. With strongwinds forecast over the flats and later attake-off, the first task was an early-start41.5km. Competitors were quick to takeoff, and after climbs to cloudbase at2,000m various gaggles set off. 56 pilotsmade goal, Stanislaw Radzikowski (GinCarrera +) winning all three classes. Thefemale winner was Chantal Touzac(Ozone Mantra 6).Much lighter winds were forecast for Day2 and an 83km task was set, up to thenorth end of the valley then downthrough the flats to land close to theGreek border. The task was stopped aftertwo incidents, one of which was fatal. Theevening party was cancelled as a mark ofrespect. Although no-one made goalStanislaw Radzikowski won all threeclasses again, and Lill Elisabeth Jensen(Ozone Alpina 2) won the female category.An FAI investigation was initiated but thedeceased pilot’s wife, who was present,insisted the event continue.Day 3 was a free-flying day, with adefined XC for those seeking an objectiveand retrieves for those who weren’t. Day 4was too windy to fly; instead competitorswere offered trips to Lake Ohrid or theMarble Lake, close to Prilep on the otherside of the valley.Day 5 saw a 62km task set out in thevalley. It was windy on take-off and someelected not to fly, but everyone wholaunched got away safely. AndersGustafsson (Ozone Zeno) won the serialclass, with 31 pilots in goal. RaphaelTheurillat (Ozone Delta 3) won the sportsclass, Anne-laure Broise led the femalesection and the leisure class winner wasStanislaw Radzikowski.On Day 6 a 101km task was set withturnpoints at both ends of the valley anda goal in the middle. Conditions weregood and climbs went to over 3,000m.Among the 39 pilots in goal, Martin Longwon the serial task and StanislawRadzikowski took the other two classes.Ludmila Zalik (Skywalk Chili4) won thefemale section.Martin Long (Ozone Zeno) won the serialclass from Stanislaw Radzikowski, withStan winning both sports and leisureclasses. Johanna Lonngren (BGD Cure)won the female category. Once again,high-end B gliders flown to theirmaximum potential had given the twoclasses above a good run for their money.Skill is a big part of free flying.The Naviter Open awards prizes as adraw. These included holidays, a harnessand Flytec and Naviter instruments.Andrew Marks won a Gin harness, andDamien Parnham and Anders Gustafssonboth got Naviter Oudie 4s. Prizes weredonated by the Alpine Flying Centre,Passion Paragliding, xTc paragliding, andGin. All competitors in both the GWO andNaviter Open had the option of a freeyear's SeeYou licence, valued at £140. Serial1 Martin Long GB Ozone Zeno2 Stanislaw Radzikowski Poland Gin Carrera +3 Anders Gustafsson Sweden Ozone ZenoSport1 Stanislaw Radzikowski Poland Gin Carrera +2 Mike Moore Hong Kong Ozone Alpina23 Raphael Theurillat Switzerland Ozone Delta 3Female1 Johanna Lonngren Sweden BGD Cure2 Catherine Bartholdi Switzerland Ozone Swift 43 Ludmila Zalik Poland Skywalk Chili4Leisure1 Stanislaw Radzikowski Poland Gin Carrera +2 Darko Stankovski Slovenia Nova Mentor 53 Andrew Smart Switzerland Ozone Swift 4Full results are atSerial class winners …… and Female winners at the Naviter OpenPhoto: Oliver BrossPhoto: Oliver Bross28 OCTOBER 2017 TIM SWAIT The World ChampionshipsGenerally the first rule of the Comps Panelis ‘You don’t talk about the Comps Panel’.Despite this, any mention of the panel willprovoke discussion and critique of thedecisions made amongst pilots, wives,girlfriends, husbands and the FB mafia.Having sat at the panel meetings as MeetDirector for the past two years, I now seethe hard work and effort that goes intomaking the competitive element of oursports run. What I do know is that thedecisions are difficult and made with thebest selection of the team in mind.The team selected back in November for the2017 World Championships was CarlWallbank, Grant Crossingham, Gordon Rigg,Dave Matthews, Andrew Hollidge and OllieChitty, with reserves Steven Blackler andMalcolm Brown. Steven then attempted toget selection with the NZ team andwithdrew as first reserve. Early in 2017 Carlhad to pull out, with regret, which lead toMalcolm stepping up to a team position.The Comps Panel also supported RichLovelace and Steven Blackler to enter thecompetition as individuals.Unlike my previous stint as Team Manager atthe Annecy Class 5 and Women's Worlds in2014, the logistics of this trip were substantial,time consuming and immensely frustrating.A considerable help was Kathleen Rigg'sexperience at the 2016 Pre-Worlds, and herwork on compiling as much information aspossible to aid team planning. The competition was to be held in August,based at Brasilia, South America. This ofcourse involved the immense hassle oftransporting gliders halfway around theworld. Luckily I found that TAP Portugalwere willing and able to take hang gliders,with a stopover in Lisbon but flying directlyinto Brasilia (most of the other major teamshad to fly into Rio or Sao Paulo and drive500+ miles to Brasilia). So flights, rentalcars, roof racks, hotels, funding, T-shirts,sponsorship, team dynamics and drivers …All these things are entirely sort out-able,just made much more difficult when doneremotely. And, well, when you ask eightpilots their opinion on something, beprepared to get either two or ten opinionsback (Team Managers' joke).Attending a competition in South Americaisn't going to be cheap. Especially inBrasilia, Brazil's capital city. Architecturallydesigned by Oscar Niemeyer, Brasilia wasbuilt in the late 1950s and is, essentially,the Milton Keynes of Brazil (lots ofroads/roundabouts). Funding wise, we hadguesstimated that such a comp would costeach pilot around £5k to attend. The teampilots were funded well by the BHPA andwe as a discipline are grateful for theircontinued support. The additional pilotsself-funded bar the entry fee; so anexpensive few weeks away. I flew out first via a cheaper and longerroute in order to meet the pilots arrivingwith gliders. The first wave arrived on July29th with the remainder a few days later.We were also exceptionally fortunate tohave with us Nick Chitty, Ollie’s dad, whoworked very hard as team driver andsupport. We had nine days' practice timepre comp to ensure the gliders survivedtransit without damage, to rebuild andacclimatise. Brasilia in August is hot(average 35 degrees) and very dry. Selection for Team Manager positions generally takes place at the Hang Gliding Competitions Panel meeting aroundNovember the year preceding. For those of you not in the know, both hang gliding and paragliding comps have acommittee of volunteers who organise UK competitions and British teams for their disciplines.Maj Jenny Buck outlines theTeam Manager's roleOllie Chitty launches at the World Championships Photo: Jamie Shelden 2017 29Luckily the gliders arrived intact. All theBrits managed to hook up pre comp andfly five practice tasks together along withTom Weissenberger who helped with priorexperience of the area. The weather didn'texactly play ball however, and althoughthroughout the comp it was consistentlyflyable, we only managed two ‘classic’Brasilia days in 14 days of flying.Flying into the Esplanade in downtownBrasilia was strictly verboten pre comp dueto the extensive airspace regs over the city.It involves a fairly clenchworthy approachinto the centre of town (imagine landing inHyde Park) to a field with airspace on twosides and telegraph poles on three. Oh, andno overshoot. Add to this a crowd waiting tosee you pile in – I mean spot land. Heck, it'sa dream come true! There is however agood reason to land there: the benefit to thesponsors. Without them there likelywouldn't have been a Worlds, so we had totake the rough with the smooth.Registration took place on Saturday August5th. Two days later a mandatory pilots'briefing was to be followed by the TeamManagers' meeting. The pilots' briefingoverran past 9pm which left the TMsplaying catch-up, eventually getting out ofthe HQ at 2315. Dining opportunities inBrasilia on a Monday night after 11 arelimited. However I had reckoned without thelanguage skills and undeniable but dubiouscharm of Australian pilot Jonny Durand.Jonny managed to source food and cocktailsfor myself, Vicki Cain, Gordon, Attila Bertokand Tom in a ladies dancing club/karaokebar. That Caipirinha was the best.Most pilots opted to rest on the officialpractice day, knowing what was likely tocome. It was with a sense of relief –excitement? anticipation? – that Day 1 wasfinally upon us. The daily routine involvedbreakfast, loading up both cars and then1.5-hour drive to the launch, the last fourmiles of which was a corrugated dirt trackthrowing up cu-nims of red dust every day.I hated that track.Launch itself was friendly (bar the dust).It's at the edge of a plateau dropping offinto the valley below. A few dusties maderigging more exciting but nothingmassively troubling. The TMs had a 1020meeting each day with the pilots' briefing at1115. In Brasilia nothing much happenswhen it should and it wasn't unusual forthe task briefing to start at 1130 … and thengo on for 45 minutes. Following this theBrits would have a command huddle,discuss the task and check instruments toavoid the obvious mistakes.The individual task reporting I’ll leave toGordon, but generally launch would open at1245 with the first start at 1345. This didn'tleave long for tasks as the day finished by5pm and it was dark by 1830 – equatorialconditions. So the tasks weren't that long,mostly around 90-130km. When people werein goal a lot of people made goal; it could beargued that the task setting didn't quitegauge the conditions or the field correctlyto ensure a tactical spread. After six tasks there was a mandatory restday and then back to the flying. All theBrits flew so hard, and the support wereceived from back home via Facebook andtexts, etc, was so great. Unfortunately, dueto two days where the boys didn't makegoal, we slipped down the team ranking,ending up in 10th place with GrantCrossingham as Top Brit in 20th. The new(Czech) World Champion Petr Beneš partiedhard, but with the help of Max Factor (!)took the podium at the closing ceremony.The atmosphere at the Worlds was secondto none; the support to each other ascompeting nations was outstanding and atrue reflection of sportsmanship andintegrity. The gaggles were very busy andthe conditions weren't the best Brasilia hadto offer, but our guys did the best theycould and I was damn proud of them all.My thanks to organisers Chico, Nani,Betinho and Cid for the massive effort ittakes to run a Worlds – I'm notvolunteering to do that at Merthyr. To NickChitty for being a great support to theteam and for his work on the vlogs whichmade it so real for you back home. And toall the British pilots – Grant, Gordon, Ollie,Malcolm, Andy, Dave, Steve and Rich –thank you for a great trip. I know howhard you flew; be proud.Next >